Thursday, October 14, 2010

Tax day

I got an extension on my income taxes and paid today, hours before the deadline and I feel ill. The amount of money I had to give to the government is gross, especially for someone recently unemployed. I wonder how many million of hours and tens of billions of dollars are wasted on the tax code. How much more efficient would things be if we had a flat tax, or just a VAT. Think of the hundreds of thousands of people who spend their entire lives looking over spreadsheets and trying only to maximize return and minimize cost. These are not helpless people, these are quantitatively adept, detail oriented people that could be doing something useful (I am aware of the rank hypocrisy of an unemployed trader calling into question the contributions other professions make to the world, thanks). They could be contributing to the country and economy not just battling with each other over excel and deductions and EBITA, one side trying to take it all and the other wanting to hold on to it. As a trader at least I was only being useless to the world on my own. I did not require hundreds of other traders on the other side to counteract what i was doing. It just seems to me like a massive waste of a lot of smart people in an endeavor drains mountains of resources from both sides.

$13 billion for the IRS, but that is just a drop in the bucket. The amount every business needs to spend covering it's ass about taxes must be astronomical.

My best solution would be if you could pay your taxes on a post card.

What did you make _________
multiply by .25
What you owe: __________

Have a nice day!

No deductions, HSA forms, declarations dependents just simple math. Done and Done. Hell, we may not even have to pay that high of a % if we don't have to hire tens of thousands of people to enforce the current byzantine system we have.

Anyway, got approved for unemployment today, will decide on where the first batch of donations are going by the end of the week, try and keep the debate civil in the comment section guys.